Durham, N.C. — Syracuse lost last year’s national championship game to Duke in large part because it rarely saw possession in the middle of the contest.

On a vastly wetter and far less grand stage, the Orange ran into the same problem a whole lot earlier against the Blue Devils on Sunday.

Duke scored 10 consecutive goals in the first half, monopolizing possession for about seven minutes during one stretch, and demolished Syracuse 21-7 before 3,215 at Koskinen Stadium.

“It just wasn’t a good day,” coach John Desko said.

Indeed, it wasn’t for the Orange. Syracuse absorbed its most lopsided loss since a 24-8 setback against Hobart in 1977 and its first defeat by a double-digit margin since a 17-5 loss at Johns Hopkins in 2004.

Randy Staats, who returned from a leg injury, scored two goals and added an assist in the loss. The Orange (4-3), which fell to 0-3 in the ACC and is in serious danger of missing next month’s conference tournament in Chester, Pa.

“No one likes it,” attackman Kevin Rice said. “You don’t like losing and you don’t like getting your butt kicked by 14, either. It’s going to be an important week for us to see how we respond and how we move forward.”

Deemer Class had six goals, Myles Jones added five and Jordan Wolf had five goals and three assists for the Blue Devils (8-2, 2-1), who have won four games in a row since absorbing back-to-back losses to Maryland and Loyola.

Christian Walsh added six assists for Duke, which got six-point days from four players, including all three starting midfielders.

“I’m disappointed defensively,” Desko said. “I thought we knew who they were pretty well. We slid late to them and didn’t seem to understand who they were. We worked on it all week. I thought we were prepared to play, especially defensively, against this group as anyone we’ve played this year.”

Syracuse showed some life early after giving Joe DeMarco the start on faceoffs as a steady rain began to fall in the Research Triangle. DeMarco won three of his first four draws, and Syracuse built a 2-1 lead and called a timeout after winning a faceoff and getting a man-up possession.

Then the downpour really started for the Orange.

Luke Aaron saved a Nicky Galasso shot, and after a clear Jones scored with 9:41 left in the period. Duke won the ensuing possession, but Syracuse was able to briefly get it back before goalie Dominic Lamolinara bungled a clear that set up and easy goal for the Blue Devils’ Josh Dionne with 8:43 remaining in the quarter.

That would be the last Syracuse would see of the ball until less than two minutes remained in the quarter. By that point, Duke had built an 8-2 lead while carving up a Syracuse defense simply not equipped to contain an elite offense for as long as it was asked in this game.

“It’s always tough when you can’t get the ball,” DeMarco said. “The field has something to do with it. I was struggling to get traction out there. The middle of the X of the field out there was real muddy and it was hard to dig into all their moves.”

Sunday’s game followed the blueprint of Duke’s 16-10 victory in last year’s national title game in Philadelphia, only in a more accelerated fashion. Duke’s Brendan Fowler dominated faceoffs that day, winning 20 of 28 draws as Syracuse futilely tossed six players out to contest draws over the course of the afternoon.

Duke was 14-for-18 on faceoffs before the break, and scored more goals in the first half (13) than Syracuse mustered shots (10). The Blue Devils held a 13-4 lead going into the locker room and were never seriously threatened in the final 30 minutes.

Fowler finished the day 24 of 31 on faceoffs, getting the better of five players Syracuse trotted out to the X.

With the loss, Syracuse will have to win its final two ACC games (Saturday against Notre Dame and April 12 against North Carolina) to have any chance of participating in the four-team ACC tournament late next month. The bottom two teams in the conference will meet April 26, the day between the league semifinals and title game.

“We have to win games, whether we’re first in the conference or sixth in the conference,” Desko said. “I don’t know what we’d panic about. If we’re panicking about going to the conference playoffs, then we can panic about that. Right now, we have to focus on winning as many games as we can to get into the (NCAA) playoffs.”

Notes: Junior midfielder Henry Schoonmaker sat out with a shoulder injury. Senior Billy Ward didn’t get the initial first midfield run — that went to Staats — but he saw additional playing time and had a goal against Duke. … Syracuse switched goalies at halftime. Lamolinara allowed 13 goals and made five saves in the first half and Bobby Wardwell made 11 saves while allowing eight goals after the break.